Baseball

Offense Stalls in Midweek Loss to Carson-Newman

Apr 10, 2012

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Despite outhitting the Eagles in Tuesday's midweek affair, Tornado Baseball lost 5-1 to Carson-Newman University at the King College Baseball Complex. King had six runners stranded or cut down while in scoring position as the Eagles thwarted multiple scoring King scoring chances in the loss.

Stephen Mullins (Bluff City, Tenn.) led the Tornado recording base hits in each of his first three plate appearances, two for extra bases. He extended his current hit streak to nine games with his second-inning double, his first of two on the day.

The King offense recorded four of its eight hits in the game during the final two innings, but could only score once on Cody Snyder's RBI single up the middle to plate Tyler Orndorff. Orndorff tripled to deep left field with one out to set up the score in the eighth.

Outside of the blemish in the eighth, Carson-Newman starting pitcher Evan Faithful (1-2) has a solid day on the mound, going all nine and striking out eight Tornado batters.

The Eagles scored their first two runs in consecutive innings by playing small ball with sacrifice bunts setting up each run. In the third, Mason Guymon singled up the middle to score the game first run followed by Lance Rorex hitting a RBI single to left off of King starter Daniel Glenn (Pineville, N.C.).

Glenn (3-1) left two men on with two outs in the fifth inning when he was relieved by Dustin Pannell, but before the Tornado could get out of the inning Lance Reed found the left center field gap to score two more runs and give Carson-Newman and 5-0 lead.

Pannell battled his way through the Eagle lineup from the sixth inning on, not allowing a run through his remaining 4.1 innings of work. He allowed only one hit in his final four innings and escaped two jams where multiple runners were left in scoring position, including a 5-3 double play to end a threat in the ninth.

In the fourth inning, King has two quality scoring chances after Mullins led the inning off with a double that visited the right field corner, but was pegged going to third on a grounder to the hole. The inning ended when Doug Freeman was picked off at third by Faithful.

The loss drops King to 22-16 overall as they head into their final conference road series of the weekend against North Greenville University. The Tornado will head to Tigerville, S.C. for a three-game set against their former NCCAA rivals in a crucial matchup with Conference Carolinas Tournament stakes on the line. The series will begin on Friday, April 13, at 2:30 p.m. from Ashmore Field. The teams will finish up the set by playing two on Saturday, April 14, beginning at 12:00 p.m.